✌✌✌✌ THE HINDU ✌✌✌✌
✌✌ Arrest of a military chief ✌✌
The arrest of Indian Air Force former chief Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi on Friday by the Central Bureau of Investigation is a sobering moment. This is the first instance of a serving or retired military chief being arrested on charges of corruption. The CBI arrested ACM Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan in connection with the purchase order for VVIP helicopters in 2010 for the IAF. In an official statement, the CBI said they were arrested for alleged irregularities in the procurement of a dozen AW101 VVIP helicopters from U.K.-based AgustaWestland, part of the Italian consortium Finmeccanica. The CBI claims that ACM Tyagi “entered into criminal conspiracy with other accused persons and in 2005” to change the service ceiling of VVIP helicopters from 6,000 m to 4,500 m, to make AgustaWestland eligible to participate in the tender. Twelve per cent of the total deal of Rs.3,767 crore is alleged to have been the commission involved. After the allegations first emerged in Italy, an embattled UPA government had moved swiftly to order an investigation in February 2013. The case was handed over to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, which have relied substantially on evidence from Italian courts. The case in Italy has witnessed several twists and turns, with a lower court in October 2014 acquitting ACM Tyagi, Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi and others of corruption charges. On April 8, 2016, the Milan Court of Appeal overturned the order, and sentenced Mr. Orsi to about four years in jail.
This is not the first time that the name of a retired military chief has come up in a defence scandal. In 1987 the central investigation agencies had raided Admiral S.M. Nanda, accusing him of being a middleman in the sale of German-made HDW submarines to India in the early 1980s. Two decades later the case was formally closed by the CBI, saying no concrete evidence was available. In 2006 the CBI filed an FIR alleging kickbacks in the purchase of the Barak missile system from Israel, naming among others Admiral Sushil Kumar. With extensive use of RTI, he contested the charge, and seven years later the CBI told a Delhi court it couldn’t find any evidence. This is not to suggest that defence deals are all clean. In this case, the Indian hand in the deal has been corroborated by an Italian court. But a case is only as good as its conclusion. And defence deal investigations have a habit of getting complicated by the difficulties in securing the kind of evidence that is required to secure firm convictions. How this case, which has significant political ramifications, plays out, remains to be seen.
✌✌ A brutal victory in Aleppo ✌✌'
The battle for Aleppo is almost over. Syrian government troops have captured almost 85 per cent of the eastern part of the city which fell into rebel hands in 2012 in one of the early setbacks to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war. Given the pace of the battlefield advances, it’s only a matter of weeks, if not days, before the Syrian army recaptures all of Aleppo, the country’s largest city and commercial capital before the conflict broke out. The regime will now have direct control over all the major cities and population centres in Syria, while for the army, which was on the brink of collapse a year ago before the Russian intervention, the victory is certainly a morale booster. But Mr. Assad has had to pay a heavy price for Aleppo. This military triumph is the result of a brutal strategy the regime and the Russians put in place earlier this year. Damascus knew that if Aleppo were to be recaptured, it would shift the balance of the civil war decisively. Eastern Aleppo was the priciest catch of the rebels where they built a parallel government. Their plan was to expand the “revolution” to other regime-held territories and they had the backing of regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Syrian government, however, launched a relentless bombing campaign in July, imposing a siege on the rebel-held parts of the city. After months of bombing by Russian and Syrian jets broke the rebel supply lines, the army, backed by Hezbollah and Iran-trained militias, moved in to make quick gains.
The battle for Aleppo has been a humanitarian disaster. The rebels accuse the regime of indiscriminate bombing and killing civilians, while the government says it had no option but to move in as the city was controlled by “terrorists”. Both are partially true. From the beginning of the Aleppo operation, both the regime and Russia adopted scorched earth tactics. But government troops frequently opened humanitarian corridors for the civilians to escape the war and the Russians had even negotiated a retreat deal with the rebels under Turkish mediation recently. But the rebels, including Fateh al-Sham that was al-Nusra Front till August, the al-Qaeda branch in Syria, refused to retreat; they also prevented residents from fleeing the city. Now that government troops have captured most of the city, the question is, what will President Assad do next? Will he move troops to Idlib, another rebel-held city, or kick off a long-awaited political process where he could negotiate from a position of strength? The latter option would avert more bloodshed, while the military’s resources could be rechannelled to fight the Islamic State.
✌✌✌✌ THE ECONOMIC TIMES ✌✌✌✌
✌✌ Countdown to end of the Islamic State ✌✌
It could well be the final countdown for the Islamic State (IS) as a Caliphate, a jihadi outfit that distinguished itself from the rest by holding territory and imposing its rule over it. The two centres where IS has been entrenched, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, are on the verge of falling to anti-IS coalitions of national armed forces and assorted militias. Of course, even after being driven out of its seats of power, IS could well continue to operate as Al-Qaeda and other such outfits do.
The political legwork that is required to back up the armed action on the ground is extensive. For one, for the ouster of IS to sustain, the US and Sunni governments would have to work with Iran, and that would mean reaching accommodation with the Assad regime in Syria. Since Kurds taking part in the offensive against IS get arms from western powers, Turkey is miffed — Turkey does not want to encourage any demand for an independent Kurdistan that would take some territory from Turkey as well. The ongoing effort in Aleppo by the Syrian and Russian forces on defeating those opposing Syrian President Basher al-Assad is unlikely to ensure peace in the region. IS is still strong in eastern Syria, and could well become the focal point for a regrouping. Other countries in the region, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, should be on guard as an under-siege IS could direct some of its activity eastward.
Once Mosul is recaptured, the local Sunni population must not find itself out in the cold, neglected by a Shi’ite government. Failure to ensure an inclusive civilian power structure would leave the possibility of yet another IS takeover. Patience, local support and sustained effort by the coalition forces will be crucial to the defeat of the IS. It would also mean a shift in the policy on Syria and Iran.
✌✌ Arrest of a military chief ✌✌
The arrest of Indian Air Force former chief Air Chief Marshal S.P. Tyagi on Friday by the Central Bureau of Investigation is a sobering moment. This is the first instance of a serving or retired military chief being arrested on charges of corruption. The CBI arrested ACM Tyagi, his cousin Sanjeev Tyagi and lawyer Gautam Khaitan in connection with the purchase order for VVIP helicopters in 2010 for the IAF. In an official statement, the CBI said they were arrested for alleged irregularities in the procurement of a dozen AW101 VVIP helicopters from U.K.-based AgustaWestland, part of the Italian consortium Finmeccanica. The CBI claims that ACM Tyagi “entered into criminal conspiracy with other accused persons and in 2005” to change the service ceiling of VVIP helicopters from 6,000 m to 4,500 m, to make AgustaWestland eligible to participate in the tender. Twelve per cent of the total deal of Rs.3,767 crore is alleged to have been the commission involved. After the allegations first emerged in Italy, an embattled UPA government had moved swiftly to order an investigation in February 2013. The case was handed over to the CBI and the Enforcement Directorate, which have relied substantially on evidence from Italian courts. The case in Italy has witnessed several twists and turns, with a lower court in October 2014 acquitting ACM Tyagi, Finmeccanica CEO Giuseppe Orsi and others of corruption charges. On April 8, 2016, the Milan Court of Appeal overturned the order, and sentenced Mr. Orsi to about four years in jail.
This is not the first time that the name of a retired military chief has come up in a defence scandal. In 1987 the central investigation agencies had raided Admiral S.M. Nanda, accusing him of being a middleman in the sale of German-made HDW submarines to India in the early 1980s. Two decades later the case was formally closed by the CBI, saying no concrete evidence was available. In 2006 the CBI filed an FIR alleging kickbacks in the purchase of the Barak missile system from Israel, naming among others Admiral Sushil Kumar. With extensive use of RTI, he contested the charge, and seven years later the CBI told a Delhi court it couldn’t find any evidence. This is not to suggest that defence deals are all clean. In this case, the Indian hand in the deal has been corroborated by an Italian court. But a case is only as good as its conclusion. And defence deal investigations have a habit of getting complicated by the difficulties in securing the kind of evidence that is required to secure firm convictions. How this case, which has significant political ramifications, plays out, remains to be seen.
✌✌ A brutal victory in Aleppo ✌✌'
The battle for Aleppo is almost over. Syrian government troops have captured almost 85 per cent of the eastern part of the city which fell into rebel hands in 2012 in one of the early setbacks to the regime of President Bashar al-Assad in the civil war. Given the pace of the battlefield advances, it’s only a matter of weeks, if not days, before the Syrian army recaptures all of Aleppo, the country’s largest city and commercial capital before the conflict broke out. The regime will now have direct control over all the major cities and population centres in Syria, while for the army, which was on the brink of collapse a year ago before the Russian intervention, the victory is certainly a morale booster. But Mr. Assad has had to pay a heavy price for Aleppo. This military triumph is the result of a brutal strategy the regime and the Russians put in place earlier this year. Damascus knew that if Aleppo were to be recaptured, it would shift the balance of the civil war decisively. Eastern Aleppo was the priciest catch of the rebels where they built a parallel government. Their plan was to expand the “revolution” to other regime-held territories and they had the backing of regional powers such as Saudi Arabia and Qatar. The Syrian government, however, launched a relentless bombing campaign in July, imposing a siege on the rebel-held parts of the city. After months of bombing by Russian and Syrian jets broke the rebel supply lines, the army, backed by Hezbollah and Iran-trained militias, moved in to make quick gains.
The battle for Aleppo has been a humanitarian disaster. The rebels accuse the regime of indiscriminate bombing and killing civilians, while the government says it had no option but to move in as the city was controlled by “terrorists”. Both are partially true. From the beginning of the Aleppo operation, both the regime and Russia adopted scorched earth tactics. But government troops frequently opened humanitarian corridors for the civilians to escape the war and the Russians had even negotiated a retreat deal with the rebels under Turkish mediation recently. But the rebels, including Fateh al-Sham that was al-Nusra Front till August, the al-Qaeda branch in Syria, refused to retreat; they also prevented residents from fleeing the city. Now that government troops have captured most of the city, the question is, what will President Assad do next? Will he move troops to Idlib, another rebel-held city, or kick off a long-awaited political process where he could negotiate from a position of strength? The latter option would avert more bloodshed, while the military’s resources could be rechannelled to fight the Islamic State.
✌✌✌✌ THE ECONOMIC TIMES ✌✌✌✌
✌✌ Countdown to end of the Islamic State ✌✌
It could well be the final countdown for the Islamic State (IS) as a Caliphate, a jihadi outfit that distinguished itself from the rest by holding territory and imposing its rule over it. The two centres where IS has been entrenched, Mosul in Iraq and Raqqa in Syria, are on the verge of falling to anti-IS coalitions of national armed forces and assorted militias. Of course, even after being driven out of its seats of power, IS could well continue to operate as Al-Qaeda and other such outfits do.
The political legwork that is required to back up the armed action on the ground is extensive. For one, for the ouster of IS to sustain, the US and Sunni governments would have to work with Iran, and that would mean reaching accommodation with the Assad regime in Syria. Since Kurds taking part in the offensive against IS get arms from western powers, Turkey is miffed — Turkey does not want to encourage any demand for an independent Kurdistan that would take some territory from Turkey as well. The ongoing effort in Aleppo by the Syrian and Russian forces on defeating those opposing Syrian President Basher al-Assad is unlikely to ensure peace in the region. IS is still strong in eastern Syria, and could well become the focal point for a regrouping. Other countries in the region, including Afghanistan, Pakistan and India, should be on guard as an under-siege IS could direct some of its activity eastward.
Once Mosul is recaptured, the local Sunni population must not find itself out in the cold, neglected by a Shi’ite government. Failure to ensure an inclusive civilian power structure would leave the possibility of yet another IS takeover. Patience, local support and sustained effort by the coalition forces will be crucial to the defeat of the IS. It would also mean a shift in the policy on Syria and Iran.
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